O.I.N.D. GILF

"I know" I said. "And I'd pay for one if they wouldn't. I want you to put her in a semi-private room and charge us for a private room."

He looked puzzled. So did Thomas and Debbie.

"Dad, did you have a T.I.A. too?" asked Thomas.

"A semi-private room has two beds," I said. "She'll be the only patient in the room so they can charge us for a private room to make sure no one else gets assigned to it."

"So the other bed just gets wasted?" asked Thomas.

"Nope, that's where I'll sleep for the next few days," I said. "Your Mom and I have never been apart since we got together. We're not going to start now."

"He's just doing this so he can attempt to violate my virtue while I'm in the hospital," said Kath.

"I'd never do that, Kath," I said.

"Why not?" she asked. "We've done it everywhere else. Don't pretend it hasn't crossed your mind. It certainly crossed mine."

"What do you mean everywhere else, Mom?" asked Thomas.

"Oh we've done it a few times at your house," she smirked. "Yours too Debbie."

"Where in my house?" Thomas asked.

"Uhm your room," I said. "You were on vacation."

"What about my dining room?" he asked in a perturbed voice. "Two years ago, we had Christmas at my house. The whole family was there. After everyone left, I found a pair of damp panties on the dining room table that we had just eaten dinner at a few hours earlier. That was you guys wasn't it?"

I looked down at the floor sheepishly. "Hey at least we waited until after dinner was over," said Kath.

"Oh God, I blamed that one on Katt," he said.

"I already knew you'd done it in my house," said Debbie. "I thought it was sweet."

Kath was in the hospital for four days. I never left her side. We had to make some changes starting then in the way we did things. Kath had always been as healthy as a horse, but now we found her taking several medications to prevent blood clots, lower her blood pressure and other things. It was only a mild change in lifestyle at first. Over the next few years though, the changes became more and more the norm. It was just as we'd predicted. We spent every possible moment of everyday together. It never got so bad that we actually stopped making love but we did cut way, way back.

Kath made me love her more with each passing second. We started a new tradition of having dinners at our house every Sunday where Kath would complain to the kids about how I was treating her.

She loudly asked Thomas if he could set her up with one of the young summer interns working at his office.

"Mom, why would you ask me to do something like that?" he asked in shock.

"Your Dad is getting old Thomas. He can't keep up with me anymore. We only did it twice last week. I think I'm going to have to have a lover on the side." Everyone nearly died laughing especially me.

There I was like always with the family gathered around us holding her hand.

"Carl," she said. "Can I stay with you for a few days?" she asked.

"Why Mom?" he asked.

"Because I can't get any privacy here," she said. "This pervert even follows me and stands outside of the bathroom. Sooner or later he's going to have to learn how to stand on his own two feet, and let me pee in peace."

Everyone was shocked at her words. I was sure she meant it as a joke. The part about me following her to the bathroom actually was funny, but I think that was the moment when they really realized that she wouldn't be with us forever and they'd have to figure out what to do about me. Most of them realized that I'd been with Kath for most of my adult life and I really had no clue of how to live without her or any willingness to do so.

In many of their minds I was not quite thirty years old but my life had been lived already.

That night was also the first night that I ever had cross words with anyone in the family.

Kath had fallen asleep in front of our fireplace while we talked over old times. Carl and his family had left already. Cal and Thomas were in the garage looking at my latest Mustang. I'd scoured the internet and finally found a Roush Black Jack special edition. I'd paid nearly fifty percent over market value but it was worth it. There were very few of those cars made.

I heard a sound behind me and turned to see Mona coming into the room. Katt never came to any of the family gatherings. No one cared and it was never mentioned. Mona and I rarely spoke. So seeing that she wanted to talk to me was strange.

"She's asleep," I said smiling. Inwardly I was wishing that she's just leave and let me have my quiet time with Kath.

"I know that you're devoted to the old lady," she said. "But you have to start thinking about your own needs. A young man like you has needs, and twice a week isn't going to cut it. I'm pretty sure that if you called Katt and was nice to her, she'd take care of those needs for you and be glad to do it."

Before I got over my shock at what she'd said, she sank even lower.

"Katt thinks you're an old lady chaser though. So if she's right and you are into older women, you could also call me, though I'm not sure you could handle me."

"Mona, I'm not going to tell Thomas about any of this," I snapped. "But I want you to go and get him now. Tell him you have a headache and need to go home, or make up something that he'll believe. Then from now on whenever we have these little gatherings, find something else to do. Don't ever come back into my home."

"But she'll think I don't like her," said Mona. "And I w..."

"If Kath ever dies, I'll make sure you get everything she left you," I sneered "Now go."

Mona took off like a scalded cat. I thought back to what Kath had told me about her a few years ago and just shook my head. "Bitch," I said quietly.

"You told her Honey," smiled Kath.

"Sorry Kath," I said. "How much of that did you hear?"

"All of it," she said.

"I thought you were asleep," I said.

"You still don't get it do you?" she said. "Okay let me try this one more time. I love you Ray Jordan. We're connected. Not by wires or gears, but by our hearts. Mona makes you nervous and upset. Your heart beats faster and you warm up. That means my heart beats faster too and that woke me up."

"Sorry," I said again.

She just smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way," she said. "But since you're apologizing, there are some things that you really should be sorry for." She was nodding her head as she sat up, smiling.

"Like what?" I asked.

"You should be sorry that it took you so God Damned long to grow up and meet me," she said. "I would have loved for us to have had many more years together. You should be sorry especially, for the six months that you spent following my useless granddaughter around. Those are six more months I should have had. You should really be sorry, that you were so shy and timid when we first met. That's at least an extra week that we could have spent fucking and I'd really love another week of things the way they were when we first met."

"Uhm Hm," I smiled. "Is there anything you've left out?" I asked.

"Ray the thing I'm the most sorry for is that we met too late for me to have your baby. I love my sons and their families. We have a great family but there's nothing I wouldn't give, except my time with you of course, to see what our babies would be like."

Over the next few months Kath got weaker. I took a sabbatical from work so I could spend every second with her. I planned out things with her and with the family a lot of which never happened because she was just too tired.

Thomas planned a huge birthday party for me for my thirtieth birthday. I'm sure it was really special. Everyone came over and swam in the pool and ate and had a really good time. I missed it, or rather we missed it. Kath slept through it and I simply couldn't leave her. I started to plan things around her waking days. There were days when she'd be very lively and almost like the old Kath. On those days she could even walk a few faltering steps.

The only problem with those days was that she slept almost all day for the next couple of days after them. I'd always expected Kath to live to be a healthy 80 year old woman, but it appeared that she'd lived too much life to make it. It was almost as if in life, like in running there were sprinters and there were marathoners, with the rest of us being somewhere in between.

Kath was a world class sprinter.

I arranged another trip for us, it took days of planning. This time the journey was much shorter though. Instead of us jetting off to Katmandu, the trip was much closer to home.

Debbie and I got Kath dressed in an absolutely beautiful black dress. Except for a wrinkle or two here or there she looked almost exactly the same as she had nine years ago when we first met. Of course her health had really declined since then but what she lacked in energy, we made up for in shared memories.

We went to hear the local symphony perform Mozart. Though there were different musicians and a different conductor, the magic of the music still transported us back through the years. Kath fell asleep for a few moments here and there but squeezed my hand often to let me know that she was awake.

Thomas was waiting for us outside in his car. When I called him and told him that Kath was a bit tired and couldn't walk, he brought her wheelchair.

I pushed her to ColdStone and we got ice cream and watched the boats for a while. "This is what we did on our first 'Date'," she smiled at me with a big tear rolling down her cheek.

"You're such a sap," she said. "That's why I love you so much Ray."

"I love you Kath," I said. Thomas smiled as he watched over us. I leaned over to kiss her and squeezed her breast on the sly.

"Aren't you being a little forward young man?" she asked. "We just met after all."

At first I thought that she was joking. Then as I looked at her face I could tell she wasn't. She was still smiling but her face was wrong. I called Thomas and told him to hurry.

Thomas brought the wheelchair over beside us and Kath didn't notice him.

"Are you sure you love my granddaughter?" she asked. "I'd never tell this to anyone, but you have a nice face. That girl is bad. Get away from her as fast as you can."

She looked over at Thomas finally. He was in shock at her words about his daughter.

"What the hell are you doing here, you bastard," she spat at him. "Get away from me. How dare you even try to come back into my life? You never even called or wrote to find out about your sons."

Then as swiftly as it began the incident was over. "I love you so much Ray," she said and then she closed her eyes.

"We'd better get her home," said Thomas. "She had another attack didn't she?"

I slowly shook my head. He just looked at me strangely. "Yes she did. I saw it. She was talking to you like she didn't know you Dad. And she thought that I was a stranger obviously," he said. "We should get her home or to the emergency room."

"Thomas, she didn't think you were a stranger. She thought you were your father. It's too late to take her to the emergency room, and she's already home."

"You mean..." he said. I nodded slowly and rubbed his shoulder.

"Thomas, you once said that you owed me one," I said to him. "I want to collect now."

"I owe you a lot more than one, Dad," he said. "What do you want?"

"An hour with her before we call the police and the Coroner and the funeral director and the family," I said. "There are so many things I still need to tell her."

He nodded and started making phone calls. I guess most people wouldn't have understood but he did.

I held Kath in my arms one more time. Not surprisingly she was beautiful even in death. I told her how much I loved her and that I didn't think that I was strong enough to go on without her. I told her that I was already lonely and I couldn't wait until we were together again.

It seemed like the hour flew by, before I knew it Thomas was beside me and I could see an ambulance with its lights off parked nearby on the grass. I didn't remember the truck even pulling up. But there they were several men; those who wore hats had taken them off. They were all waiting for me. Kath's own doctor had come over and explained her condition to the EMS techs and the man from the coroner's office.

They very lovingly performed an examination on her and signed her over to the mortician. They expressed their condolences to me and told me that my mom had been a truly loved woman. I didn't bother to correct them.

I guess we all handle the death of a loved one differently. Over the next few days I did a lot of really stupid things. I went out to my car, the Black Jack. It was my favorite of all of my Mustangs. I was going to go somewhere. As I sat down in the car and put my seatbelt on, I started thinking about Kath. That thought led to another and another until Cal came out of the house.

"Dad, you're back already?" he asked. Then he looked at me. "You didn't go anywhere did you? You've been sitting out here in the car for three hours, why?"

I told him what had happened and from then on they had someone watching me. They were afraid I'd sink into a depression and never come out of it.

It took a few days, it was actually the morning of the funeral that I realized what I had to do. Kath had wanted a funeral so her family could see her one more time. Instead of a burial she would then be cremated and my journey would begin.

The funeral was as you'd expect a very special affair. The service was non-religious. We all took turns standing and telling our favorite memories of Kath and things she did that made her special to us.

Katt, of course embarrassed herself and all the rest of us by talking about how similar she and Kath were. I think she was saying it all for my benefit but I really didn't see any similarities between them, except for the name.

Kath's attorney called us all together the next day to read her will. I didn't really want to be there. But I had to; there were things I had to put right.

I saw Katt in the hallway just before the reading.

"I'll bet you wish you were still with me now don't you Ray," she smirked. "Remember the pre-nup. You aren't getting shit and I'm going to be fucking rich. Maybe after I fuck around for a few years to make you suffer, I'll let you marry me."

"I've got my own money Katt," I said. "All I ever needed from your grandma was love." Katt snorted and walked away.

Mona didn't say a word to me. She just went into the office.

Kath left Carl one million dollars. She left Linda, his wife a half million. She left each of their three kids one hundred thousand dollars each. The only stipulation on the money was that they had to spend it. They could put it in a bank for a while but she wanted them to use the money to have and do things they wanted to do. She didn't believe in saving for a rainy day.

She left Cal a million dollars as well and left Debbie her own million. Debbie had really bonded with Kath and Kath considered her the daughter she'd never had.

She also left each of their kids a hundred thousand dollars.

Then the surprises began. She left Thomas, her first born son an envelope telling him that he and I would talk and determine the amount of his inheritance after his divorce.

"What?" everyone said at once. Mona almost fell out of her chair.

Kath left Mona five dollars. With all of the other inheritances she'd paid the taxes. Mona had to pay the inheritance taxes on her money at 33%, she should only receive three dollars and sixty five cents.

Kath left her special Granddaughter a quarter. After taxes Katt would recieve roughly seventeen cents.

Mona and Katt were pissed beyond reason.

"This is Bullshit," screamed Katt. "I want my fucking money."

"What divorce," screamed Mona.

They were even more pissed when they found out that Kath had left everything else to me.

"We'll contest the will," screamed Mona. "That woman was obviously out of her mind."

"I've been telling you that for almost 10 years," hissed Katt. "What kind of woman steals her granddaughter's boyfriend?"

"I assure you that Mrs. Jordan was very much in her right mind when she drew up this will. She was adamant about a number of things in it including her wishes for how her husband would take care of her ashes," said Kath's attorney.

"But why would she not leave anything to her oldest son?" asked Mona. "And what's all of this bullshit about a divorce? Thomas do you know anything about divorcing me?"

"Today was the first I ever heard of it," said Thomas. "I'm shocked about the way she treated you. Mom not leaving Katt anything does make sense because Katt has problems right now."

"Yeah but she totally stiffed me," shrieked Katt. "She gave the other granddaughters, my cousins a hundred grand each. With me being her special Granddaughter I should have... I'll bet you have something to do with this didn't you Ray," she said glaring at me.

"Katt, she called Dana, her best granddaughter and she called Mary Anne her favorite granddaughter," I said. "Each one of you had a little title to make you feel like she thought you were special."

It was the first thing I'd actually said since the proceedings began. And it opened the floodgates. Everyone was coming over to me to talk to me about this or that.

"Thomas your mother loved you very much," I said. "You'll probably end up with more then either of your brothers did, but Kath wanted to wait until after the divorce so your inheritance couldn't be split with Mona as community property. It was Mona she wanted to stiff not you."

"Mary Anne," I said to Carl's oldest daughter. She came over to me and sat near me. "Kath and I spent a lot of time keeping track of what all of her grand kids were doing and wanted to do. You want to take some time off and take a big road trip with a bunch or your friends and now you have the money to do that, Honey. But your car is a death trap." I reached into my pocket and gave her the keys to Kath's Jaguar.

"Take care of it and remember your Grandma when you drive it," I said. "She loved to travel too. I think you get that from her."

"Thank you Grandpa," she said. "I'll tell you all about my trip when I get back."

"Dana, it's your turn," I said. Dana came over. Katt was becoming angrier by the second. "Dana, you just got engaged didn't you?" She nodded. "Kath and I talked about your young man a lot. I don't see it but she seemed to think that he reminded her of me back then. To start you guys out well, I think she would have wanted you to have this condo. I don't want you to spend your money on it so I'll have it redecorated for you. Just pick out the colors and furniture you'd like."

Everyone was stunned. Debbie came over to me looking confused. "Ray where are you going to live?" she asked.

"Debbie, I can't stay here without Kath. Everywhere I look I see things we bought and I think about what we were thinking when we did them and it just makes me miss her more." As I started to cry she hugged me and rubbed my back.

"Kath gave me a mission to take care of. So I'll be traveling for quite a while. When I come back from that I'll look for a place."

Debbie still didn't look convinced.

I told Thomas, Mona and Katt that we'd get together to discuss the will and Kath's reasons and some things she wanted them to know first thing in the morning. Debbie told me that she'd be there too. I think she decided that she needed to crash the meeting to support me.

That night sleep wouldn't come. I knew that tomorrow would be a rough day. Cal and Debbie came over early in the morning to make sure I had breakfast. We'd scheduled our meeting for 9 a.m. I told Debbie that Thomas would probably need her a lot in the coming days.

Katt arrived at 8:30 because she wanted to talk to me. It was funny looking at her and comparing the woman she was when we first met to the woman she'd become.